Hokkaido
Sapporo · Niseko · Furano · Otaru · Hakodate
Two islands, six months apart
Hokkaido does not feel like the rest of Japan. It was settled late, its cities are laid out on a grid, the farms are large, and the weather runs to extremes at both ends of the year. It is the one part of the country where the landscape rather than the culture is the reason to go. There are effectively two Hokkaidos. The winter island is snow — Niseko's powder is among the most reliable anywhere, Sapporo builds a city of ice sculptures every February, and the north settles under a depth of snowfall that is hard to picture until you stand in it. The summer island is the opposite: lavender and flower fields around Furano, long cool days when the rest of Japan is at its most humid, and the emptiest roads in the country. A volcanic spine runs through the centre with national parks spreading east; the interior is farmland on a scale found nowhere else in Japan, which is why the flower fields exist and why the roads are straight.
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Powder, lavender and the best seafood in Japan
Niseko's snow, which is why a large share of visitors come at all. The Furano lavender in July — a genuinely short window. Hakodate's night view from the mountain above the city. And Hokkaido's seafood, which is the best in Japan and not a close contest.
Choose the season, and you choose the holiday
Winter runs December to March: deep reliable snow, the ski season, and the Sapporo Snow Festival in early February. Summer runs late June to August and is the only part of Japan comfortable in August, with lavender peaking in July on a narrow window. Autumn colour arrives here first in Japan, from mid-September in the mountains. April and May are the one period to avoid — snow going, flowers not yet arrived.
Fly in, and think carefully about driving
✈ Arriving
- New Chitose (CTS) serves Sapporo
- Flying beats travelling overland from Honshu
- Domestic connections via Tokyo or Osaka
🚗 Around the island
- Rail is thin outside the Sapporo corridor
- A car materially improves the summer interior
- Winter driving is specialist — we usually plan transfers
🎫 Passes
- JR Hokkaido Rail Pass for the main corridor
- Distances take longer than the map suggests
- Book Niseko and Snow Festival dates far ahead
A week in the north
Sapporo
The city, its ramen and its beer — and Otaru's canal town half a day away.
Niseko or Furano
Powder in winter; lavender and farmland in summer. The same days, two different trips.
Hakodate
The southern port, the morning market, and the night view from the mountain.
Return
Back to Sapporo and New Chitose, or on to the eastern parks with more time.
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